Boehner's Sandy relief sellout stirs up a storm

Some of the damage caused by Hurricane Sandy to Seaside Heights.Andrew Mills/The Star-Ledger

When it comes to getting your Irish up, few can outdo Peter King. King is a congressman from Long Island who has been outraging his fellow Republicans ever since the 1980s, when he went against his own party in supporting Irish nationalists in the war against the British over Ulster.

That sort of thing may not have been popular in Washington. But it was popular in his heavily Irish-American district. So was what he said yesterday, I imagine.

"I’m saying right now, anyone from New York or New Jersey who contributes one penny to congressional Republicans is out of their minds," King said on Fox News (video below). "Because what they did last night was put a knife in the back of New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. It was an absolute disgrace."

What they did was deep-six a bill providing $60 billion in relief for Hurricane Sandy. King was quick to point out that many of these same Republicans "have no problem finding New York when it comes to raising money."

He was referring to campaign contributions, but the same holds for tax revenues. The areas affected by Sandy include some of the most affluent areas in America. Many of the counties send more money to Washington than some entire states do. But when it comes to getting a few bucks back, the rest of country suddenly turns into tightwads.

In a news conference yesterday afternoon, Gov. Chris Christie also made it clear his Irish was up, not to mention the other half of him that is Sicilian. He told reporters that he had received assurances from House Speaker John Boehner as late as Tuesday evening that the package would be put up for a vote — only to find out at 11 p.m. that Boehner had deep-sixed the bill.

Christie said he called Boehner yesterday to ask what had happened.

"I’m not going to get into the specifics of what I discussed with John Boehner today, but what I will tell you is there is no reason for me at the moment to believe anything they tell me," Christie said. "They’ve been telling me stuff for weeks, but they didn’t deliver."

Christie pointed out that Jersey taxpayers didn’t object to footing the bill for disasters in other states. Congress took a mere 10 days to pass a $51 billion aid package for victims of Hurricane Katrina, with similar intervals for Andrew and Ike.

The massive size of Hurricane Sandy is evident In this satellite image provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as the storm churns off the East coast on Sunday, Oct. 28. Sandy continues its track north and is expected to turn sharply west towards New Jersey.NASA | Getty Images

But it’s been more than two months since Sandy hit. The reason for the delay was the fight over the nation’s fiscal cliff — and the attempt by a lot of congressmen from other states to capitalize on it by stiffing New Jersey. Rep. Darrell Issa, for example, comes from California, a state that has cashed in big on earthquake aid in prior years.

When it came to Sandy, however, Issa said half of that aid package consisted of "unrelated pork." But the pork he and other congressmen pointed out was small change, such as a mere $2 million for a new roof on the Smithsonian.

As for the rest of the package, it could have taken a bit of a trimming. But Boehner had two months to do that. Meanwhile, Shore residents are still waiting for federal flood insurance benefits to rebuild, and the insurance fund runs out of money next week.

Many people are under the mistaken impression that the flood insurance program is some sort of a giveaway. In fact the premiums are high and the payouts are low, capped at a mere $250,000 per homeowner. It’s true the program should be reformed, but the feds have an obligation to back the policies that they required so many people to purchase.

Much of the rest of the aid is provided under the Stafford Act, which funds disaster recovery. Again, if people like Issa wanted to repeal that act, they should have done so before their states cashed in on it.

By the end of the day, Boehner had withered under the heat. He promised a vote on part of the package Friday and the rest by midmonth. But the package will have to start anew in the Senate. That’s because a new session of Congress starts today.

If this is the way Boehner plans to run it, then we should be in for some fun.